Note 32 — An Historical View OF THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH COMEDY

St. Katharine (Dunstable c. 1100, Coventry, 1490); St. George (1415 and later); St. Laurence (Lincoln, 1441); St. Susanna (Lincoln, 1447); St. Clara (Lincoln, 1455); St. Edward (Coventry, 1456 and later); St. Christian (Coventry, 1504); St. Christina (Bethersden in Kent, 1522); Sts. Crispin and Crispinian (Dublin, 1528); St. Olave (London, 1557). Some of these were church plays, like the St. Olave; some, like the St. Katharine, were school plays; some, craft plays, like the St. Crispin. It is hard sometimes to distinguish between the play and the mumming or the mute pageant; to the dumb show may be assigned some of the St. Georges and the pageants of Fabyan, Sebastian, and Botulf, displayed, in 1564, by the religious gild of Holy Trinity (St. Botolph without Aldersgate). For some conception of the frequency and vitality of such shows one need only turn to Hone, Stow's Survey, the Records of Aberdeen, Toulmin Smith's English Gilds, the History of Dublin, Davidson's English Mystery Plays, and other books of this kind.